ELR Citation: ELR 20128
No(s). 04-3941 (7th Cir. Jun 21, 2005)

The court affirmed a lower court decision finding an excavation company liable under the Clean Water Act (CWA) for discharging dredge and fill material into navigable waters without a permit. The company dumped dredged stumps and roots into a wetland drained by a ditch that runs into a non-navigable creek that runs into the non-navigable Lemonweir River which, in turn, runs into the navigable Wisconsin River. Rather than arguing that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' regulations did not apply to the wetland at issue, which would be an unsuccessful argument in any case, the company argued that wetlands are not waters of the United States. But nothing in the U.S. Constitution forbids interpreting the CWA to cover any wetlands that are connected to navigable waters. Whether the wetlands are 100 miles from a navigable waterway or 6 feet, if water from the wetlands enters a stream that flows into the navigable waterway, the wetlands are "waters of the United States" within the meaning of the Act.